To better understand God’s work, some Christians look to the sky. Ragan Sutterfield, assistant priest at Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock, prefers to focus on the earth beneath our feet.
His new book, “The Art of Being a Creature: Meditations on Humus and Humility,” mixes “soil science, memoir, Bible studies and theology,” he said.
(According to the Oxford Dictionary, humus is “the organic component of soil that results from the decomposition of leaves and other plant material by soil microorganisms.”)
A pastoral fellowship from the nonprofit Louisville Institute enabled Sutterfield to learn about the tiny organisms that thrive in the garden.
“I took a soil science course with a renowned soil scientist named Elaine Ingham, got a microscope and learned how to identify some of the different microbes that are found in good, healthy soil,” Sutterfield said.
Sutterfield discovered that a handful of soil supports an extraordinary amount of life.
“In just one tablespoon of soil, there are billions of microbes,” he said. “There are all kinds of bacteria, fungi and protozoa, nematodes.”
This wealth enables our planet to thrive, he said.
“Modern soil scientists distinguish between soil and dirt,” he said. “Dirt is inert. It does not produce life. It has no life. In the soil, it does.”
He noted that a similar distinction is made in the book of Genesis.
“They thought that without God we are just inert dirt. But with God, with (His) breath and God’s spirit dwelling there, we are part of this living reality,” he said.
Before entering church ministry, Sutterfield, a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, was a farmer, teacher and president of the Arkansas Farm Community Alliance.
“I trained as a sheep farmer,” he said.
He noted that agricultural themes are common in the scriptures.
“The people who wrote the Bible were deeply connected to the land and the rhythm of planting and harvesting, and so they probably knew the soil in a very deep and intimate way,” he said.
Sutterfield’s writings have appeared in Christianity Today, The Christian Century, Sojourners, and Books & Culture.
His fourth book is followed by “Wendell Berry and the Given Life” (Franciscan 2016); “This is My Body: From Obesity to Ironman, My Journey into the True Meaning of Flesh, Spirit and Deeper Faith” (Convergent/Random House 2015); and “Cultivating Reality: How the Soil Might Save Us” (Cascade 2013).
Sutterfield says a quote from former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams served as inspiration for the title.
“He said that in our modern society we are in danger of losing the art of being a creature,” Sutterfield said.
By paying attention to the ground, Sutterfield says, we can “reclaim that art.”
“The Art of Being a Creature,” an imprint of Cascade Books, is available at Wordsworth Books in Little Rock and online.
His new book, “The Art of Being a Creature: Meditations on Humus and Humility,” mixes “soil science, memoir, Bible studies and theology,” he said.
(According to the Oxford Dictionary, humus is “the organic component of soil that results from the decomposition of leaves and other plant material by soil microorganisms.”)
A pastoral fellowship from the nonprofit Louisville Institute enabled Sutterfield to learn about the tiny organisms that thrive in the garden.
“I took a soil science course with a renowned soil scientist named Elaine Ingham, got a microscope and learned how to identify some of the different microbes that are found in good, healthy soil,” Sutterfield said.
Sutterfield discovered that a handful of soil supports an extraordinary amount of life.
“In just one tablespoon of soil, there are billions of microbes,” he said. “There are all kinds of bacteria, fungi and protozoa, nematodes.”
This wealth enables our planet to thrive, he said.
“Modern soil scientists distinguish between soil and dirt,” he said. “Dirt is inert. It does not produce life. It has no life. In the soil, it does.”
He noted that a similar distinction is made in the book of Genesis.
“They thought that without God we are just inert dirt. But with God, with (His) breath and God’s spirit dwelling there, we are part of this living reality,” he said.
Before entering church ministry, Sutterfield, a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, was a farmer, teacher and president of the Arkansas Farm Community Alliance.
“I trained as a sheep farmer,” he said.
He noted that agricultural themes are common in the scriptures.
“The people who wrote the Bible were deeply connected to the land and the rhythm of planting and harvesting, and so they probably knew the soil in a very deep and intimate way,” he said.
Sutterfield’s writings have appeared in Christianity Today, The Christian Century, Sojourners, and Books & Culture.
His fourth book is followed by “Wendell Berry and the Given Life” (Franciscan 2016); “This is My Body: From Obesity to Ironman, My Journey into the True Meaning of Flesh, Spirit and Deeper Faith” (Convergent/Random House 2015); and “Cultivating Reality: How the Soil Might Save Us” (Cascade 2013).
Sutterfield says a quote from former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams served as inspiration for the title.
“He said that in our modern society we are in danger of losing the art of being a creature,” Sutterfield said.
By paying attention to the ground, Sutterfield says, we can “reclaim that art.”
“The Art of Being a Creature,” an imprint of Cascade Books, is available at Wordsworth Books in Little Rock and online.
